Piracy may be good for the intellectual property owner :: Los Angeles Times

At least on the right margins. Selective enforcement.

Get them addicted. Then bring in the pirate cops. Entrenchment by stealth.

Where an open source rival threatens to create an open sore, go easy in enforcing your property rights. It deters entry and reduces the chance the cancer will grow into a mutually reinforcing networked community of open source users.

Economist and professor of information Management, Hal Varian, is quoted.

Interesting:

"Microsoft benefits from piracy, then says, 'If you think prices are high, blame the Chinese, because they are the thieves,' " said Ariel Katz, a law professor at the University of Toronto and an expert on the economics of piracy.